In the following description the dispensing of exposed or non-exposed radiographic film sheets will be considered as an example.
The apparatus and method of the invention are advantageously used in so-called intermediary unloading devices as used in daylight radiographic systems although their use is not restricted thereto. So, they may also be used as original feeders in photocopying machines or form part of a radiographic daylight loading system enabling a substantial simplification of such systems when compared with present-day installations.
The present-day intermediary unloaders are of the type in which a sheet or sheets of radiographic film when leaving a radiographic cassette is sandwiched between the adjacent convolutions of a web wound upon a core during the winding-up cycle. Dispensing of the sheets occurs when the core is rotated in reverse direction. It will be clear that, in so doing, the sheet which was first unloaded is dispensed the last, and vice versa.
The daylight loading devices used to-day are rather voluminous in that a plurality of loading modules have to be placed one above the other together with the module incorporating the voltage supplies and logic circuitry.
Further daylight loading apparatus are marketed which operate fully mechanically and which may be suspended from a wall. The mechanical nature of such devices, especially their film selecting mechanism, requires the use of so-called notched films which in aspect differ from the normal radiographic films to which the medical staffs are generally accustomed.